Naomi Aho, CPSA - Featured Artist 2005

Naomi Aho, CPSA

Our first featured artist is Naomi Aho of Warren, ME, our 2005 CIPPY award winner. Naomi is an enthusiastic user of colored pencil and feels that drawing is her forte. She prefers the pencil to the brush. The transparency and very rich colors found in colored pencils enable her to create her very detailed drawings.

Her interest in art and colored pencils goes back nearly as far as she can remember, when she fell in love with all the colors in a box of Crayola crayons and also discovered that she could express ideas in pictures without using words. Many of us can relate to that, I’m sure. Naomi took a number of art courses in college, but did not focus in one area at that time. She then took time off to raise her children and has returned to drawing only in the past 10 years and found that pencil and colored pencil fit perfectly into her life. She considers herself primarily a self-taught artist.

Her favorite artists are Vincent Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth. She recognizes that they have styles that differ significantly, but feels the same emotion emerges from their work. When asked what her favorite subjects are, she replied, “ I love trees (and nests), boulders, water, Spring and Fall. How those pieces will show up in my pieces is my next adventure!”

Naomi says she does not have a specific technique, but rather approaches each piece as a new challenge or experience. She likes to choose her surface texture and technique of application based on the subject that she is drawing.

Reading about other artists is something she likes to do. It helps her learn more about herself and to examine what “artistic angst” might be currently affecting her. She reads International Artist Magazine as well as American Artist, The Artist’s Magazine, Art Business News, and American Art Collector every month.

Naomi enters art competitions every year and has been accepted in the 14th Annual Exhibition in Albuquerque. She has also been accepted into the International Guild of Realism.

CPSA is honored to have Naomi as a member and pleased to again extend congratulations on winning the top award in the 13th Annual International Exhibition that was held in August 2005 in Chicago, IL.